1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator and particularly, to a concentration cooling apparatus for a refrigerator, capable of swiftly maintaining a temperature inside of a chilling chamber as a uniform temperature by performing a swift cooling operation of a high temperature load by concentratedly injecting cold air into a region where a high temperature load is occurred inside the chilling chamber.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a refrigerator includes a freezing chamber for keeping frozen food, and a chilling chamber for keeping chilled food, and a refrigerating cycle for supplying cold air to the freezing chamber and chilling chamber is positioned therein.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a partially cut section of a conventional refrigerator, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a conventional chilling chamber.
The conventional refrigerator includes a main body 104 in which a pair of doors 102 opened and closed in both directions are mounted at the front side, having a receiving space therein, a freezing chamber 106 which is positioned at the left side of the main body 104, for keeping frozen food, a chilling chamber 108 which has a plurality of shelves 114 for keeping refrigeration food therein, which is divided by the freezing chamber 106 and partition 110 and is positioned at the right side of the main body 104, and a cold air supplying apparatus which is installed at the upper side of the freezing chamber 106, for supplying air which is cooled passing the refrigerating cycle to the freezing chamber 106 and chilling chamber 108.
The cold air supplying apparatus includes a ventilation fan 120 which is mounted on the upper rear wall of the freezing chamber 106, for coercively ventilating air which is cooled by passing the refrigerating cycle, a panel 128 which is positioned at the lower side of the ventilation fan 120, having a plurality of cold air discharging ports 130 are formed therein to supply cold air into the freezing chamber 106, a cold air supply path 132 which is formed at the upper side of the partition 110 for flowing cold air ventilated from the ventilation fan 120 to the chilling chamber 108, a cold air discharging duct 134 which is mounted at the upper portion of the chilling chamber 108 and is connected to the cold air supply path 132, for discharging cold air into the chilling chamber, and a cold air inflow path 138 which is formed at the lower side of the partition 110, and in which cold air which completed cooling operation circulating in the chilling chamber 108 is flowed into the refrigerating cycle.
Here, a plurality of cold air discharging ports 136 for discharging cold air to the chilling chamber 108 are formed at the front and lower sides of the cold air discharging duct 134.
A temperature sensor 140 is attached on one side of the chilling chamber 108, blocks supply of cold air to the chilling chamber 108 when the temperature of the chilling chamber 108 is lower than a predetermined level, and supplies cold air from the freezing chamber 106 when the temperature is higher than a predetermined level.
The operation of the conventional art with the above composition will be described as follows.
Firstly, when the refrigerating cycle is driven and the ventilation fan rotates, the cold air cooled by passing through the refrigerating cycle is discharged respectively to the cold air discharging port 130 of the panel 128 and cold air supply path 132 by a ventilation pressure of the ventilation fan 120.
The cold air discharged to the cold air discharging port 130 performs a freezing operation of a frozen food stored in the freezing chamber 106 circulating inside the freezing chamber 106.
The cold air supplied to the cold air supply path 132 is flowed to the cold air discharging duct 134 and is discharged into the chilling chamber through the cold air discharging port 136 which is formed in the cold air discharging duct 134.
Therefore, the cold air discharged into the chilling chamber 108 performs cooling operation of the chilled food stored in the chilling chamber 108 circulating in the chilling chamber 108, and the cold air which stops being cooled is flowed to the cold air inflow path 138 formed at the lower side of the partition 110 and is cooled again by the refrigerating cycle.
However, in the conventional refrigerator, since the cold air discharging duct is positioned at the upper side of the chilling chamber and cold air is supplied from the upper side to the lower side of the chilling chamber through the cold air discharging port formed in the cold air discharging duct, temperature deviation became deepened according to the distance from the cold air discharging port. Since the cold air is discharged only from the cold air discharging duct of the chilling chamber, it took much time to make temperature inside the chilling chamber uniform when a high temperature load is occurred due to a receiving food and the like in the chilling chamber. Therefore, a chilling time became longer, thus to degrading freshness of food stored in the chilling chamber.
Also, since the temperature sensor and cold air discharging port are positioned under the condition that they are respectively fixed in a predetermined region, the temperature detected by the temperature sensor was limited in a predetermined region in the chilling chamber and since cold air discharging was also limited in a predetermined region, in case a high temperature load is occurred in a region out of the portion where the temperature sensor can detect temperature, it took much time to get rid of temperature deviation inside the chilling chamber, and accordingly, the temperature inside the chilling chamber could not be swiftly uniformized.
Particularly, since the cold air discharging port is formed a the rear portion of the chilling chamber, cold air is concentrated in the rear portion and center portion of the chilling chamber near from the cold air discharging port. Therefore, food near the rear portion was over-cooled by much effect of the cold air and food which was kept near the door far from the cold air discharging port could not be relatively affected by the cold air and was under-cooled.
That is, since the internal temperature of the chilling chamber gains a more serious deviation according to the distance from the cold air discharging port, the distribution of the temperature inside the chilling chamber can not be uniformed.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a concentration cooling apparatus for a refrigerator, capable of swiftly maintaining a temperature inside of a chilling chamber as a uniform temperature by increasing a cooling speed of the high temperature load by concentratedly discharging cold air to a region where the high temperature load is occurred.
Also, the other object of the present invention is to provide a concentration cooling apparatus for refrigerator, capable of widening the sensing range of the temperature sensor by rotating a nozzle having a cold air injection port for discharging the cold air and the temperature for sensing temperature therein up and down as well as in the circumferential direction, and actively coping with the high temperature load occurred inside the chilling chamber by widening the cold air discharging range of the cold air injection port.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a concentration cooling apparatus for a refrigerator, comprising a housing which is respectively mounted in one or more cold air guiding paths formed on a side wall of the chilling chamber to guide cold air to the side wall of the chilling chamber a nozzle which is rotatably supported in the housing, for concentratedly injecting cold air to a region where a high temperature load is occurred in the chilling chamber a temperature sensor which is mounted at the front of the nozzle, for sensing the region where the high temperature load is occurred, rotating together with the nozzle, and a nozzle driving portion for rotating the nozzle up and down, and in the direction of the circumference.